Menu

Jacobites and Jacobins: the problem with Yes fundamentalism

The most read article on this website is the one by Ewan Morrison ‘Yes: Why I joined Yes and why I changed to No’. It is interesting to see that some Yesses are now voicing their criticism of the Yes movement and some of this echoes what Ewan was saying in his article. So we thought it would be worthwhile reblogging an extremely thoughtful blog which appeared on the faintdamnation website. In this piece the author explains his unease with various aspects of the Yes movement such as the Glasgow rally and the way that the SNP and many Yes activists are content to discard the view of the majority of Scots. He particularly dislikes ‘the tone’ of many of their pronouncements and wonders if he still wants to be part of movement which he believes has ‘authoritarian’ tendencies.

In the run-up to the referendum, many, many thousands of people took the time to educate themselves, and each other, about how we in Scotland are governed. Information came to light about taxation flows, media coverage, oil revenues, voting records, expenses payments. Everywhere, people were interested in politics.

I always wanted that to happen, so the last few tumultuous months before the vote were quite dizzying to live through.

I voted Yes. I was sure it was the right thing to do.

It was an article of faith on the Yes side that lots of citizens had journeyed from No to Yes, but no one ever headed in the opposite direction.

Well, more than two months after September 18th, I look around me at what the Yes movement has become. And I think I want out.